We Should Have Seen Liam Neeson Becoming An Action Star Long Before Taken Premiered 16 Years Ago

Liam Neeson is now best known as an action star thanks to the Taken movie series, but we should have seen this transition coming long before Taken premiered 16 years ago. Liam Neeson has been part of movies from a variety of genres throughout his acting career. Neeson received critical acclaim for his role as Oskar Schindler in Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List, which served as his breakout role. Neeson continued a streak of success with movies like Rob Roy, Michael Collins, and Les Misérables.

In the late 1990s and 2000s, Neeson expanded to blockbusters, beginning with Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. Neeson was part of big productions like Batman Begins and The Chronicles of Narnia trilogy, as well as rom-coms like Love Actually and dramas like Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York. In the late 2000s, Neeson began to establish himself as an action star thanks to the action thriller Taken, which spawned a franchise. However, we should have seen this coming years before in two key roles that showcased Neeson’s talent in action movies.

The Phantom Menace & Batman Begins Showed Liam Neeson Was Ready To Be An Action Star

Before Bryan Mills, There Were Qui-Gon Jinn & Ra’s al Ghul

Liam Neeson’s jump to blockbusters gave him his first chance at action movies, though not as heavy as the Taken movie series. No one can forget how, in 1999, young millennials like myself were excited to learn new Star Wars movies were coming our way, beginning with Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. Surely, looking back, The Phantom Menace was a disappointment (though whether it has a nostalgic place in the hearts of a generation or not is another story), but it had some pretty cool elements, among them Neeson’s character Qui-Gon Jinn.

Qui-Gon Jinn was a Jedi Master and mentor to Obi-Wan Kenobi. It was he who found a young Anakin Skywalker in Tatooine and believed he was the “Chosen One”. Unfortunately, Qui-Gon Jinn was killed by Darth Maul in a lightsaber duel, and it was that scene that showed how great Neeson would be as an action star. You can ask any Star Wars fan which were the best duels in the prequels and “Duel of the Fates” will be among the Top 3 (and the music is just fantastic), and Neeson carried that scene beautifully along with Ray Park (Darth Maul).

Neeson took it a step further in 2005 when he played Henri Ducard/Ra’s al Ghul in Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins. The scenes of Bruce Wayne’s training with Henri Ducard and Batman’s final fight with Ra’s al Ghul on the train showed a different type of action from the one in The Phantom Menace, showing yet another side of Neeson never seen before. Taken established Neeson as an action star, but he had already given a tease of that action star potential in these movies.

How Taken Was Different From Liam Neeson’s Previous Action Roles

Taken Was A Lot More Action Packed

Unlike The Phantom Menace and Batman Begins, which have their action scenes here and there, Taken was a full-on action thriller. Taken follows ex-CIA officer Bryan Mills, who sets out to find his daughter and her best friend after being kidnapped by Albanian human trafficking terrorists while on vacation in France. As such, Taken’s action scenes are faster and more brutal than those in Neeson’s previous action roles.

The duel in The Phantom Menace was perfectly choreographed and the fight scenes in Batman Begins kept a grounded style to fit the movie’s tone, but the action scenes in Taken are made to show off the actors’ training and skills. It’s also important to remember that Neeson’s character in Taken is a former CIA officer, so he was trained in different types of combat and knows how to use weapons to defend himself and attack, and that’s exactly what the movie showed in its action scenes.

How Liam Neeson Cemented Himself As An Action Star After Taken

Taken Marked A Transition In Liam Neeson’s Career

Although Taken wasn’t a critical success, critics praised its action and how entertaining it was, even if the story wasn’t the best. However, Taken was a huge box-office success, making way for a franchise that now has three movies and one TV show. Neeson reprised his role as Bryan Mills in all three movies, thus keeping his new status as an action star.

Neeson has also appeared in other action movies post-Taken, such as Clash of the Titans, Wrath of the Titans, Unknown, The Marksman, and more. Taken might not get another movie any time soon or at all, but thanks to it, Liam Neeson earned his place in film history as an action star.